August 20, 2012

The language is coming along pretty well. Me and my companions can now do a 50 minute lesson without notes so there is a lot of progression but we still have A LOT of room to improve before we hit HK. My sounds and tones are correct like 85% time so that's awesome. 

SO the new canto group is one elder and one sister, neither are natives so they will be here for the full 12 weeks. 

Questions from from parents:

Couple questions about the MTC:

1)      Are you teaching real investigators? I thought it was just practice in first few letters…but you last one made it sound like they were real…sorry for being unaware…but real investigators you teach in mtc? How does that work…bring them from BYU? Educate me please

2)      I talked to some one and then there was new family in church today about scriptures in Cantonese…they said Mandarin and Cantonese both have same written language but different spoken language…how does that work?

3)      When do you leave for Hong Kong…I think you said 17 Sept.

4)      Have you had any Apostles speak at the MTC? Do you have devotionals or speakers come talk to you guys? How often?

5)      Is church “wars” or there are 2500 that go to one meeting? How does it work?

Elder Arrington's responses:

 1. We teach our teachers ACTING as investigators they taught out in the field, so we are teaching "real people" from Hong Kong to prepare us for our mission.

2. Okay so Cantonese doesn't have their OWN written language so they barrow Mandarin's characters. Cantonese also has 7 tones (9 technically) and Mandarin only has like 4 I think. So our language is completely different (words may sound the same but it is essentially another language) so to learn how to read I have to basically learn 1.5 languages on my mission. I don't actually learn to read characters until about 6 - 8 months in the field in HK. Soooo it should interesting.

3. I leave Sept 17th, I get on a bus at 5am drive to SLC then fly to LA have a lay over there for 2 hours I think and I get to call you while I am there by the way. Then I fly to HK which is like a 16 - 18 flight...

4. I missed the Mission president training that is late May, early June. So I haven't seen an apostle yet. We have MTC leaders speak on Sundays and Apostles/70's speak on Tuesday nights every week.

5. Your zone is your ward. My zone has like 40 people or so. Oh Josh Clason my Summer roommate was in my zone he leaves tomorrow afternoon.